Yesterday’s Sabino Canyon Volunteer Naturalists Friday hike was the Bug Springs trail. Six years ago Joy and hiked this trail with the “Monday Morning Milers.” During the hike, Joy’s hiking shoes began to hurt her feet, so Edi Moore and I kept a slower pace with her.

Near the end of the hike, there’s a fork in the trail. At the time there was not a trail marker. When Edi and I reached the fork, we didn’t realize Joy had fallen back and therefore would not see which way we turned. As fate would have it, she turned left toward the toward Sycamore Reservoir.

We didn’trealize that Joy was not behind us till we got to the Bug Springs parking lot, then I turned back to get her. To say the least, Joy was pissed. “How could you go off and leave me?” she said. To this day Joy has not hike again with me. She will never let me forgot that I had gone off and left her. A lesson learned but not forgiven. The above image is for Joy — Love you!

— kenne

Hiking Bug Springs Trail, April 14, 2017 — Images by kenne
(Click on any of tiled images for a larger view in a slideshow format.)

As the desert spring days begin to become too warm for hiking the foothill canyons, we have begun hiking the trails along the Catalina Highway at the 5,000-6,000 foot level. The Bug Springs trail has an accumulated gain of 1,500 feet. (I merged three photos in Photoshop to create the above panorama.)

— kenne

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.”

As the lead guide for yesterday’s SCVN Friday hike on the Bug Springs trail, I didn’t take my D800 Nikon, instead I took some photos along the way with my iPhone. This 4.4 mile hike requires us to settle cars from the trailhead to the Green Mountain trailhead, both located along the Catalina Highway. Since the hike has a 1,300 foot change in elevation, we began our hike at the Green Mountain trailhead in the vicinity of Middle Bear campground and picnic area. Hiking the trail in reverse does provide a challenging 400 foot elevation in about 1/3 mile to the highest point on the trail, 6,279 feet.